Glorantha Fiction?

[svensson]

Alright, we've seen KODP, GRY, and other 'omniscient' or 'overview' works of Gloranthan lore. We have Griselda and her merry band of manglers. But is anyone writing any character party based Glorantha fiction?

What I'm wonder is if anyone is working on Gloranthan party based adventure fiction in the manner of [pardon while I abuse copyrights here] 'Drizzt' or 'Dragonlance' or other works of easily accessible paperback fiction for gamers new to Glorantha?

Someone else was asking about this awhile ago as well [sorry, I forget who it was], but it seems to me that a series of novels along the same vein as the late Gary Gygax' 'Gord the Rogue' novels would be a wonderful way to introduce Glorantha to without the help of Team Geezer [of whom I am a card-carrying member]. The Prince of Sartar webcomic was another effort in this idea, but Jeff and Kadien are busy for the foreseeable future.

Is Chaosium looking into such things?

[No, I'm not trying to sell a novel. I'm a louzy fiction writer. I'm asking for the sake of the nieces that I'm teaching the game to.]

[EricW]

I'm a fan of The Chronicles of Bael, about a Lhankor Mhy who gets in way over his head with a chaos plot, but the last update was 2019...

[mfbrandi]

Apologies for answering at a tangent — just ignore me, if this is irritating — but is this even desirable? Would a popular novelist capable of writing something engaging want to labour under the not inconsiderable weight of Gloranthan lore? Probably, their work would be declared non-canon, anyway.

In terms of popular fiction, I was primed for RQ2 by Robert Graves’ I, Claudius and by Mary Renault’s The Bull from the Sea. Those and some myths in translation and I lapped up the lore sections of RQ publications.

I don’t say those books would suit the tone or content of your campaign, but surely there is a book you already know and love which would serve to get your nieces on the hook. The Glorantha-specific detail doesn’t have to come from something pretending to be a novel, does it?

[Nick Brooke]

If you find anything you fancy in Oliver Bernuetz’ Mything Links Collection of Gloranthan fan-fiction, let us know.

There’s also John Hughes’ ebook To Walk in Far Places.

I share these two because I think they’re great.

(My own Gloranthan Folktales aren’t “great,” and they definitely aren’t what you’re looking for, but I quite like them; a few of them are up on YouTube. The best Gloranthan fiction is Jeff De Luna’s White Moon & Blue Fox stories, of course)

[svensson]

7 hours ago, mfbrandi said:

Apologies for answering at a tangent — just ignore me, if this is irritating — but is this even desirable? Would a popular novelist capable of writing something engaging want to labour under the not inconsiderable weight of Gloranthan lore? Probably, their work would be declared non-canon, anyway.

In terms of popular fiction, I was primed for RQ2 by Robert Graves’ I, Claudius and by Mary Renault’s The Bull from the Sea. Those and some myths in translation and I lapped up the lore sections of RQ publications.

I don’t say those books would suit the tone or content of your campaign, but surely there is a book you already know and love which would serve to get your nieces on the hook. The Glorantha-specific detail doesn’t have to come from something pretending to be a novel, does it?

Fair question.

There's A LOT of 'suitable Glorantha-esque' fiction out here [I highly recommend Gene Wolfe's 'Soldier in the Mists'].

But what I'm looking for is a 'sandals eye view' of Glorantha by characters living in it.

The idea here is to give the newbies an education in Glorantha spoonful by spoonful using likeable and relatable characters without all the sidebars, tangents and mechanics of trying to do so during a game

[jajagappa]

2 hours ago, svensson said:

But what I'm looking for is a 'sandals eye view' of Glorantha by characters living in it.

The idea here is to give the newbies an education in Glorantha spoonful by spoonful using likeable and relatable characters without all the sidebars, tangents and mechanics of trying to do so during a game

The challenges that I see are:

1) Writing decent fiction is not easy, let alone in another world such as Glorantha.  Exceptions being the Griselda stories and John Boyle's fiction (which was transplanted out of Glorantha).  Ye Booke of Tentacles #3 included a set of stories with varied interpretations of Argrath that were originally intended as part of a Glorantha fiction work in the late 90s.

2) There's no publication vehicle (aside from posting here or in some blog) to serve as incentive.  (JC explicitly does not include fiction, though short bits may be included with other content.)

[svensson]

@jajagappa All good points, which is why I posed my question.

While this thread has provided some ideas, I was wonder if there were plans for Glorantha Runequest [tm] fiction in the manner of the Call of Cthulhu authorized fiction.

BTW, is the John Boyle author you speak of the author of 'Galloway Street' or 'Daughter of a Fallen Angel'? I presume the latter [the dustcover thumbnail has a lot of 'Glorantha' in it], but I've been wrong before....

[g33k]

3 hours ago, svensson said:

...

BTW, is the John Boyle author you speak of the author of 'Galloway Street' or 'Daughter of a Fallen Angel'? I presume the latter [the dustcover thumbnail has a lot of 'Glorantha' in it], but I've been wrong before....

Here's a link -- to BRPC, in fact:

Also... paging @John E. Boyle, IIRC...

[Darius West]

I'm writing a Gloranthan fiction right now and am 200+pages in.  The working title is "The Golden Phalange".  It is a humorous adventure/murder mystery set in Prax around Pimper's Block and Hender's Ruins.

[svensson]

WONDERFUL!

I hope it works out!

[AndreJarosch]

There also are four Gloranthan fiction books in spanish (i don´t spreak spanish, and don´t own any of them, i just was informed some month ago that they exist): 

"El Legado de Montegras" by Paco Aznar

"La Alianza de los Tres Soles, Libro 1: Siempre amanece por Oriente" by Roberto Alhambra

"La Alianza de los Tres Soles, Libro 2: La Niebla que cubre las aguas" by Roberto Alhambra

"La Alianza de los Tres Soles, Libro 3: Un Brillo de Luz Negra" by Roberto Alhambra
 

[Joerg]

Seeing @AndreJarosch pipe up, I wonder why nobody has mentioned Penelope Love's "The Widow's Tale" yet...

[AndreJarosch]

24 minutes ago, Joerg said:

Seeing @AndreJarosch pipe up, I wonder why nobody has mentioned Penelope Love's "The Widow's Tale" yet...

And "Eurhol´s Vale & Other Tales" (which is available in print, while stock lasts). 

[mfbrandi]

17 hours ago, svensson said:

There's A LOT of 'suitable Glorantha-esque' fiction out here [I highly recommend Gene Wolfe's 'Soldier in the Mists'].

Thanks for reminding me to pull out my copy for a reread. Or perhaps I reread it yesterday and forgot. ;¬)

There are two sequels — Soldier of Arete (New York: Tor, 1989), Soldier of Sidon (New York: Tor, 2006) — but I can’t comment on their quality.

[Nick Brooke]

They're not nearly as good, IMO. But Soldier of the Mist is phenomenal, Gene Wolfe at his best.

[JRE]

Quality really goes down as the story gets more convoluted and other pantheons get involved. I had some problems to finish Soldier of Sidon, as I had with most of his late books. 

I can confirm the Spanish books are really about Glorantha, but I will have to check their quality. La Alianza de los tres soles is Sartar 1621, following a RQ campaign.

Edited August 4, 2022 by JRE

[Quackerjack]

I have Widow's Tale and my 13 year old loves it but I've searched for Eurhol's Vale by Penelope Love and cannot find it. Could you please provide a link?

[AndreJarosch]

On 8/4/2022 at 5:02 PM, Quackerjack said:

I have Widow's Tale and my 13 year old loves it but I've searched for Eurhol's Vale by Penelope Love and cannot find it. Could you please provide a link?

https://www.ebay.de/itm/363935019539

thechaossociety is the ebay account of the RuneQuest-Gesellschaft e.V. (aka The Chaos Society), the publisher of this book (and Tradetalk, and the Path of the Damned Comics...). 

Edited August 6, 2022 by AndreJarosch

[Quackerjack]

Thank you Andre. I had no idea about this account. Paths of the Damned was great too. =)